Diesel AB

 
Land of the Diesel Bear
By: John McPhee
Andrew Bartlett
In the article “Land of the Diesel Bear” you have John
McPhee explaining his second trip driving around America
on a big rig truck with trucker Don Ainsworth. He goes
into great detail about Ainsworth life working the roads
and describes the challenges and emotions that take place.
The article uses many industry words to explain the themes
going on and especially during the conversations between
McPhee and Ainsworth. This was done to create a mood so
that people could get the feeling they were traveling in
the truck with the two men.
      As I was reading this article at first I found it
difficult to understand because it seems like the two men
at some points are just talking in some made up language.
But, once you get into the story you come to understand
the meanings to the words they are using and the
conversations seem more real because it’s being told in a
first person form. With this way of speaking so specific I
found new understandings to the feelings truckers have
about cops, tolls, and the life style truckers have to
live in. This made the piece of writing very heartfelt and
emotional, making you want to read on so that you can
learn more about Don Ainsworth life driving his big rig.
This article is written differently than other articles
because it is written more like a story then an article.
The main points and information are not at the beginning
of the article and it’s not obvious from the start what
you’re supposed to learn by reading this. It starts off by
describing the truck and a little back ground information
about Ainsworth before switching over to conversations the
two men had while driving and with other drivers on the
radio. In the early parts Ainsworth talks about cops and
tolls around New York State and how they are different and
harsher than other police officers around the country and
that he didn’t know why. Also, that’s why he was always in
contact on his radio with other drivers because they were
always trying to avoid the cops or let others drivers know
where they are hiding.  Another large section of the
article is on all the different types of products that
Ainsworth was pulling around and the time frame he had to
deliver the goods. The men went over this in great detail
because McPhee wanted to understand the pressures drivers
have on them to get there products delivered on time
because of the laws out now that specify how many hours a
driver can drive before they must break and for how long.
These breaks take time out from driving so drivers always
need to account for this before they make deadlines. In
the ending I found it clever that McPhee through a little
paragraph in about new air systems that drivers can place
in their trucks to keep them warm or cool, instead of
idling their trucks for the same purpose creating extra
pollution while drivers wait for their rest period to end.
This just shows that John McPhee is concerned about many
different aspects of world affairs and is able to express
his views through many different types of writing even if
you wouldn’t assume that a topic would work with another
he is able to do it.